“The fires that ripped through Los Angeles have left dozens of stars homeless – including some who don’t have the deepest pockets and may not be able to rebuild.”, — write: www.dailymail.co.uk
But it is not just superstars like Mel Gibson, Paris Hilton, Jeff Bridges and Billy Crystal who the flames made homeless. There are many well-known but less well-heeled actors without succhh deep pockets who have suffered not only heartbreak but also financial hardship.
Some have gone so far as to start GoFundMe pages and have faced criticism for doing so.
Lesser-known actors and musicians, like many other homeowners in LA, are grappling with severe financial challenges and hoping to defer their mortgage payments – all while at least 12,000 structures have been lost.
And some of these public figures are long-time residents, having lived in their homes for decades. Experts warn they could be forced to sell.
Jessica Lauren, a construction contractor and real estate investor with a decade of experience, explained that the wealthiest homeowners may not be as concerned with the cost of reconstruction, but for others, it’s a different situation.
‘A number have cash to build, have their home destroyed by fire, and then rebuild, without getting too excited. They aren’t even that concerned with hazard insurance policies,’ she told DailyMail.com.
But she warned: ‘Long-time residents, and those who inherited housing, purchased, or constructed, long before the inflated values, may be uninsured, or underinsured, so they’ll sell for the value of the land.’
Dailymail.com took a look at some of the hardest hit celebs, who are saddled with big mortgages as well as the pain of losing their homes.
Joe Lando
Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman star Joe Lando lost his family home in Pacific Palisades and posted the burned out remains on his Instagram.
The four-bedroom, three-bath house was bought for $1.285million in 2003 and two mortgages are attached to it – totaling a hefty $884,000.
He played the love interest of Jane Seymour’s character Dr Michaela Quinn for six years until the show was cancelled in 1998.
It was his old friend who came to the rescue and Seymour took the family-of-six in, with Lando saying: ‘Thank god [she] gave us some place to come and sleep.’
Friends have started a GoFundMe for the 63-year-old, which has already raised its $45,000 target.
Lando has expressed how grateful he is, telling his followers: ‘To those who contributed donations, your generosity has been a lifeline to help us back towards some sort of normalcy. My family will never forget everyone’s compassion and generosity from the bottom of our hearts.’
Mandy Moore’s family
The 40-year-old model, who is said to have a net worth of $14million, received the opposite reaction to Lando when pleading for help.
Moore was criticized for sharing a GoFundMe campaign to aid her brother-in-law, musician Griff Goldsmith, 34, and wife Kit, who lost their Altadena home.
But although there was backlash, it worked – so far raising over $212,000, well above the $175,000 target.
Griff’s a drummer with the Dawes – which features his brother, Mandy’s husband, Taylor – but won’t be earning megabucks. He had a mortgage of $520,000 after buying the pad for $800,000 eight years ago.
Moore’s own Altadena-based Spanish-style colonial villa was the only one left standing on her block.
The family took refuge at their friend’s Hilary Duff’s home. Duff’s singer-husband Matt Koma is spearheading Griff’s plea for help.
Moore didn’t take too kindly to the flak she received online, hitting back: ‘People questioning whether we’re helping out our own family or attributing some arbitrary amount of money Google says someone has is NOT helpful or empathetic…
‘We just lost most of our life in a fire too. Kindly F OFF. No one is forcing you to do anything.’
Madlib
The hip-hop producer, DJ and rapper lost not only his home, but ‘decades of music and equipment’ from his precious record collection.
His vinyl collection, weighing four tonnes and consisting of around 16,000 records, was built over the years through his travels.
Thousands of these records were rare finds. Sadly, this incredible collection – often compared to the Library of Alexandria for music – was lost in the flames.
Madlib reached out to fans for their financial support. Using the fundraising platform Donorbox, he’s seen success with over 1,300 individual gifts.
The 51-year-old had only bought the Altadena property 20 months earlier for $1.85million. He’d taken out a $1.48million mortgage with US Bank.
The donation page said the cash from strangers will save his career and rehouse his family.
It read: ‘Your donation, no matter the amount, will provide assistance to help Madlib with immediate personal needs, essentials like clothing, temporary housing, transportation costs and the tools Madlib needs to continue creating the music that has touched so many lives.’
Eric Braeden
The veteran Young and the Restless actor lost his Palisades home of 38 years.
The three-bed pad was bought for $714,000 in 1987, but Braeden had taken out five mortgages worth $6.5million – only some of those have been paid off.
Braeden has played business tycoon Victor Newman since 1980, winning a Daytime Emmy for outstanding lead actor in 1998, but soap stars rarely make millions a year like their movie counterparts.
The 83-year-old shared a post on IG hinting that he was one of the many who will face hardships from the fires and may even need to sell the land.
The post read: ‘There’s a false notion that everyone in the Palisades is wealthy – a misconception that has unfortunately become part of the narrative surrounding this horrific tragedy.
‘Now, with a complete loss of income and bureaucratic hurdles to rebuilding… these at-risk Angelenos will likely be forced to sell.’
Ricki Lake
The talk show host has been through the ringer these past decades, losing nearly all of her fortune in the nineties, avoiding bankruptcy by the skin of her teeth while losing her house and going through a highly-publicized and costly divorce from jewelry designer Christian Evans.
Now her ‘dream home’ in Malibu has been left in ruins, with Lake saying it’s ‘exhausting and paralyzing’ even to think about it.
She bought the three-bed property for $2.965million in December 2013, but loaded it with a $900,000 mortgage in 2022 from City National Bank – nicknamed ‘bank to the stars’.
The 56-year-old has vowed on a rebuild and ‘to do it all again’. She already has a side hustle, flogging Cameo videos at $300-a-piece.
Chad Lowe
The TV actor and younger brother of Rob Lowe lost his Pacific Palisades six-bed mansion, which he detailed on Instagram.
In a post that showed a pile of burnt out rubble, he wrote: ‘This is what remains of 10 years of building our lives. Our hearts are broken, but we are comforted by all the well wishes, and offers of assistance.’
He said of his family: ‘We are ok and will be ok. We have each other.’
He admitted that ‘it’s a really tough time, I’m having good hours and bad hours.’
Chad, 57, wife Kim and his three kids are looking to relocate.
Chad, who won an Emmy for playing an HIV high schooler in Life Goes On, paid $1.945million for his property in 2013, but took out two mortgages totaling $2.9million.
Cameron Mathison
The soap star and TV host is currently starring in General Hospital, but is now facing his biggest emergency after his Altadena four-bedroom house was reduced to charred remains.
Like others, he’ll still face a financial burden as he bought the house for $1.67million in 2011 and has taken out two loans totaling over $800,000.
But the 55-year-old Canadian isn’t asking for anyone’s financial help.
He told fans not to fall for any GoFundMe pages in his name, posting on Instagram: ‘It is not us. We are not asking for money. Unimaginable that someone is using this disaster to rip people off.’
Milo Ventimiglia
Best known for his TV roles in This Is Us and Heroes, Ventimiglia was evacuated from his Malibu home and watched it burn down via his security cameras.
But he was more concerned that he was safe, alongside his pregnant wife Jarah Mariano, although their planned nursery was destroyed.
‘We got good friends and we got good people we’re working with and we’ll make do. Wife and baby and dog, most important,’ he said.
The 47-year-old bought the coastal home for $2.575million in October 2023 with a $1.93million mortgage. Thankfully, he’d paid it off just a couple of weeks before the fires began.
Now, he’s called on the federal and state agencies to provide assistance for the rebuild, saying: ‘I’m hoping FEMA can step in so we can rebuild.
‘And when we do rebuild, rebuild with the awareness of it happening and how do we set up our communities…so that, well, maybe there’s less loss.’
Ventimiglia was evacuated from his Malibu home and watched it burn down via the security cameras
Joshua Jackson
Joshua Jackson’s Topanga Canyon mansion didn’t survive the fires.
But the most important thing, he said, was ‘my daughter, my family, my neighbors all made it out safely’.
The Malibu mansion was left a smoldering wreck with only portions of the backyard and swimming pool intact.
The Dawson Creek actor, 46, purchased the home for $865,000 in 2002. But since then, he’s taken out five home loans worth a whopping $9.6million.
Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag
The Hills reality stars Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag had their home flattened by the Pacific Palisades fire, but not everyone shed a tear when a GoFundMe was set up by their two TikTok influencer friends.
Their GoFundMe now stands at $143,000, but Pratt, 41, took the social media heat with grace, saying: ‘We’re used to negative things, so it’s pretty standard.’
They bought their pad for $2.52million, but claimed they’ve been dropped from their home insurance policy.
Montag, 38, explained: ‘We were “house poor” as they call it; we have a house and everything else is a hustle, is a grind, so yes we’re definitely counting every dollar that we make.’
And they have massive outgoings as their three-bed hillside pad is saddled with a whopping $2.016million mortgage, which was taken out under Pratt’s parents name.
Pratt admitted a few days later that they made a massive $20,000-a-week from TikTok LIVE saying that it was ‘phenomenal and life-changing’ as previously, he’d only earned $4,000 from TikTok.